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India's Transsexuals Face 'Third Sex' Vote Dilemma
India's one million eunuchs face a unique dilemma every election season, do they stand in the men's or women's queue at polling stations or stay away altogether?
In the past, eunuchs, the term used for cross-dressers, pre- and post-operative transsexuals known here as hijras, have largely abstained from casting their ballots because they are unwilling to identify themselves as male or female on voter registration forms.
While some eunuchs do vote by listing themselves as female, many are pushing for an alternative or "third sex" option on identity cards, after being granted the franchise in 1994.
Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, a prominent eunuch activist and founder of NGO Astitva, which works with sexual minorities, has never voted and refuses to do so until there is a transgender option on identity cards.
"It's the question of the identity of our whole community," she said.
"In spite of so many years of independence we haven't got our own identity, our own place in the constitution of India."
Most eunuchs live on the outer fringes of society, ostracized and excluded from decent job opportunities and reduced to begging at traffic junctions in major cities or working in the sex trade.
Despite the stigma surrounding them, a campaign to recognise eunuchs as a third sex has yielded some results.
They can now write "E" for eunuch on passports and on certain government forms, but the quest for acceptance at the ballot box, where they have to identify themselves as male or female, still eludes them in culturally conservative India.
In the past, eunuchs, the term used for cross-dressers, pre- and post-operative transsexuals known here as hijras, have largely abstained from casting their ballots because they are unwilling to identify themselves as male or female on voter registration forms.
While some eunuchs do vote by listing themselves as female, many are pushing for an alternative or "third sex" option on identity cards, after being granted the franchise in 1994.
Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, a prominent eunuch activist and founder of NGO Astitva, which works with sexual minorities, has never voted and refuses to do so until there is a transgender option on identity cards.
"It's the question of the identity of our whole community," she said.
"In spite of so many years of independence we haven't got our own identity, our own place in the constitution of India."
Most eunuchs live on the outer fringes of society, ostracized and excluded from decent job opportunities and reduced to begging at traffic junctions in major cities or working in the sex trade.
Despite the stigma surrounding them, a campaign to recognise eunuchs as a third sex has yielded some results.
They can now write "E" for eunuch on passports and on certain government forms, but the quest for acceptance at the ballot box, where they have to identify themselves as male or female, still eludes them in culturally conservative India.
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